Since we wrote The Thinking Toolbox in 2005, we have received many letters from teachers who use our book in their classroom. We’ve created this page to give you suggestions about how to use our book with a group of students.

Which comes first?

Should you start your class with The Fallacy Detective or The Thinking Toolbox? We write these books thinking that students could start with either The Fallacy Detective or The Thinking Toolbox. But we think The Fallacy Detective is a little bit easier than The Thinking Toolbox and so might come first. Fallacies are very easy for kids to to understand and apply.

How do I assign homework?

The Thinking Toolbox has 35 lessons with exercises. The answers to the exercises are found in the back. This presents a problem, “How do I assign homework when the answers are in the back?” But this is nothing a little creativity can’t solve.

Rip out the answers! . . . a good idea, but rather undignified.

Trust them not to peek . . . Yeah, right.

We are hearing from teachers who are doing each lesson during class time. The teacher reads a lesson aloud, the class discusses the concepts and examples, and then the teacher has the class answer the exercises one by one. The teacher can correct wrong answers right in class. Mystery lessons like "Stir Plot until Thickened" work well in a classroom where the students can debate their theories about who stole the painting.

Is there a test?

Nathaniel and I wrote a test for The Fallacy Detective. We have not finished a test yet for The Thinking Toolbox. If you are interested in a test like this, let us know.

If you would like to make more test material for your class, you can use The Christian Logic News archives for material. You might also try solving The Mystery of the Large Letter Library (located at the back of our book) in the class.

Do you have input?

Are you a logic teacher who has used The Thinking Toolbox in your class? We would like to hear your input.